‘Gay’ Priests: The Truth That Dare Not Speak Its Name

On the plague of homosexuality afflicting the clergy

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By Jim Russell

"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." John 14:9

"Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us," Philip says to Jesus in the verse of John 14 that precedes the one quoted above. I firmly believe that John 14, the chapter in which Jesus tells us plainly that "I am in the Father and the Father is in me," will come to loom large in the Church's self-reflection — and, please God, action — regarding the plague of homosexuality that has afflicted the Catholic clergy for decades.

In fact, there are so many truths associated with this scourge that make perfect sense: that a "gay" subculture and homosexual grooming network grew in seminaries and among clergy; that this subculture protected the abusers that existed within it; that real people, real souls, were devastated by the harm done to them as a result of this subculture; and, finally, that the Catholic bishops themselves had the audacity to pretend to address the abuse scandal in recent years, all the while exempting themselves from the scrutiny necessary to break open this sordid and festering wound in the heart of Christ's Bride, the Church.

But one other crucial truth in all this must be acknowledged, once we acknowledge first and primarily the gravity and depravity of the sexual abuse suffered by innocents victimized by Catholic clerics whose preference for pubescent or post-pubescent male victims (not pedophilia) is now widely attested to.

That truth is this: The "gay" priest — who necessarily chose deception over honesty when it came to presenting himself for ordination in the first place (or continuing in ministry after he finally admitted his homosexuality after ordination) — perpetrates an abuse upon the Catholic faithful by remaining in active ministry instead of doing the manly thing and stepping aside.

The 'gay' priest perpetrates an abuse upon the Catholic faithful by remaining in active ministry instead of doing the manly thing and stepping aside.

Why? Because the homosexual priest lacks the very thing that is utterly necessary for an authentic priestly ministry to be exercised in the Church, such that that man can be recognized as an alter Christus by the faithful. The one deficit that lies at the core of homosexuality is the same deficit that makes a homosexual male unfit for priestly ministry: a true alter Christus reveals the Father to us.

And, sadly, and most gravely, this one essential thing is also exactly what our shepherds, our bishops, in too great a number have been found utterly incapable of providing (though, thank God, some bishops are free from this fault). Many have recently been asking, "How could any father, spiritual or otherwise, ever neglect and abuse his children in such a grievous manner?"

That's just the point, isn't it? It's not only the terrible horror of sexual abuse that has been inflicted on innocents in the Church, it is also the fundamental lack of capacity for true fatherhood that has allowed too many homosexual clerics to turn an utterly blind eye to their spiritual children. Instead, they protected the subculture that, in turn, protected them.

Real fathers don't do that to their children. Real fathers — real men — lay down their lives, like Christ did, and in doing so Christ most assuredly revealed to us the Father in Him.

And this is why this purification in the Church is so necessary and must be profound; it must unflinchingly root out homosexuality from the ranks of the clergy.

Let's walk through this. Whatever homosexuality is, despite culture's claims that it's "normal," most professionals who are honest will state that, at its heart, homosexuality represents some form of self-perceived deficit in a man's possession of his own masculinity. It results in an incapacity to become fully mature as a man. It is a roadblock between the person and his self-possession of his true sexual identity as a man.

As such, homosexuality intrinsically creates a gulf, a chasm, between the man and achieving not only a sense of his own masculinity but also his own potential as a father.

As such, homosexuality intrinsically creates a gulf, a chasm, between the man and achieving not only a sense of his own masculinity but also his own potential as a father. Homosexuality, when left unhealed and treated as merely something "normal," severs a man's connection to true paternity, not only in an obviously physical, sexual way ("gay" sex is an aping of both the unitive and procreative dimensions of marital relations), but also — and importantly in our current crisis — in a psychological and spiritual way.

Simply stated: When a man is a priest, we need to see not only Jesus present to us in him, but we also need to see a true father — a true reflection of the Father who is "in" Jesus — present in him. That's not negotiable, but it's crucially missing in the self-identified "gay" priest.

But culture pushes back. Even a huge number of supposedly faithful Catholics push back. I cannot adequately express the volume of pushback I'm seeing in social media from Catholics who utterly refuse to take seriously the fact that homosexuality — in itself — is a major contributing element to what we have been forced to face in recent decades. Largely, this is because they have fallen prey to culture's insistence that saying anything negative about the "LGBTQIA community" is inherently bigoted. And many Catholics would rather stick their head in the sand as long as they can remain in the fictional wonderland that lets them think that their "gay" friend, brother, sister, cousin, etc., is just fine and normal — gay is okay.

That kind of illusion, however, comes at a great price, at too great a cost. It costs lives and souls.

Make no mistake, our bishops, our priests, even our deacons, must have the capacity to be true fathers, and fathers from the inside out. Ordination doesn't magically make you a father. A priest shouldn't earn the right to be called "father" unless he is full possession of his own sexual identity as a man. Only a man has the potential to be a father. Every "gay" cardinal, bishop, priest and deacon should be removed from ministry.

This is the real truth that has dared not speak its name until now.

Jim Russell lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and writes on a variety of topics related to the Catholic faith, including natural law, liturgy, theology of the body and sexuality. He can be reached by email at dearjimrussell@gmail.com.

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